Stateside’s conversation with Scott Greenlee, president of Healthy and Productive Michigan.

Earlier this month, supporters of the push to make marijuana legal in Michigan delivered more than enough signatures to tentatively qualify for a proposal on the November 2018 ballot.

The group Healthy and Productive Michigan is working to stop the measure from passing. The group’s mission is to fight legalizing marijuana.

Scott Greenlee is president of Healthy and Productive Michigan, and he joined Stateside today to explain why his group believes recreational marijuana should not be made legal in Michigan.

Listen to the full conversation above, or read a partial transcript below.

CYNTHIA CANTY: Scott, what are your main arguments against having recreational marijuana in Michigan?

SCOTT GREENLEE: …Really there’s a lot of arguments for having a block on recreational use of marijuana. One of the things is medical, obviously. Most medical professionals are against this. And while there are some who support recreational marijuana that would tell you that it’s not harmful, most medical studies that are reviewed will tell you that it does cause not only short, but long-term – and can be significant – medical issues.

A lot of people have talked about the tax dollars it will generate. As folks have found out in Colorado, the tax dollars come along with a cost and, interestingly enough, in a lot of cases, tax dollar projections and revenue projections don’t come quite in where they should be.

CANTY: But we do know that there are states that are seeing their coffers fattened by it. I know Nevada generated more than $3.5 million in tax revenues in just the first month of its legalized pot. But you talk about the costs associated – like what?